On exhibit Aug. 26, 2022 through April 16, 2023, at the Saint Louis Art Museum

A special installation of the work of painter Philip Guston (American, born Canada, 1913–1980) showcases the recent promised gift from Emily Rauh Pulitzer to the Saint Louis Art Museum of Guston’s Dark Room (1978). This important painting features enigmatic imagery typical of the final years of Guston’s life, during which he explored questions around the passage of time and the artist’s quest for meaning. An arm wearing a wristwatch and holding a red paintbrush extends from the left side of the composition into empty darkness, while an oversize, bare bulb hangs over a tabletop, hardly illuminating an open but illegible book.

This special installation places Dark Room within the context of works by Guston in the  Museum’s collection from the mid-1950s to 1980.